When producing hydrocarbons, as in many industries, it is necessary to fasten various items together. A long known method of fastening is through the use of threads, such as on a bolt and corresponding nut.
While nuts and bolts work very well there are some problems associated with their use such as very long threaded sections which may take more time than an operator cares to spend tightening a bolt or those instances the threads have been damaged preventing a nut from being easily threaded onto the threaded section.
A previous solution has been to utilize a zip nut, such as the product offered by FASTORQ BOLTING SYSTEMS™. Zip nuts are generally known in the art for rapid push-on mounting onto a threaded bolt, stud, or similar threaded structure where the nut is installed onto the bolt to a seated or nearly seated position with little or no rotational motion.
Such zip nuts are typically constructed to include a plurality of part-cylindrical, longitudinally separated nut segments which are mounted in a cylindrical array within an outer nut casing or housing. The nut segments are internally threaded to collectively define a spiral female thread for engaging a mating thread on an associated bolt or threaded section. One or more bias devices such as springs are wrapped about the nut segments to apply a radially inward force urging the nut segments into normal threaded engagement with the bolt or threaded section. The nut segments are allowed to displace radially outwardly when the nut is pushed in one axial direction over the associated bolt.
Accordingly, the zip nut can be displaced rapidly over the axial length of the bolt, with a non-rotational push-on action, to a seated position in axial abutment with a substrate. If further tightening of the nut is desired, a small amount of nut rotation can be accomplished by engaging the nut casing with a wrench or the like. Further tightening of the outer nut casing causing the nut segments to interact with an angled surface in the interior of the outer nut casing forcing the nut segments against the bolt or threaded section with increasing force as more torque is applied to the outer nut casing.
While zip nuts beneficially permit rapid nut mounting without requiring substantial nut rotation over the protruding free length of a bolt, such nuts do not always permit a similarly rapid pull-off removal from the bolt when disassembly is desired. Instead, it may be necessary to back-rotate the nut from the seated position, with such back-rotation continuing for the entire free length of the bolt until the nut is removed. In these instances the threaded section that was damaged may not be bypassed.
There exists, therefore, a significant need for an improved zip nut which can be mounted onto a bolt quickly and easily with a simple push-on action, and which is also adapted to repair the threaded section during removal. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.